Prophecies
by Argonian
Summary: Choices we make affect us and those around us. This is something Zuko will find out for himself as he gets involved in the Prophecies of Agni. [Zutara] formerly known as Walk
1. Chapter 1

**The First of the Prophecies of Agni **

_**The one who from the Dragon takes,**_

_**who undone his birthright makes.**_

_**Will see his hollow victory shattered,**_

_**because the Dragon knew what mattered.**_

_**For out of the love the Dragon gave,**_

_**his son will sent the Phoenix to an early grave.**_

_**No throne of fire shall save him from this fate unfair,**_

_**for the Dragon Qi is the only true heir. **_

_**The only way to make this prophecy undone,**_

_**is for the Phoenix to kill the Dragon's son.**_

**The choices we make...  
**

In his cell beneath the Earth Palace Long Feng, Dai Li in exile, sat quietly reading a document. Even if you had been in the tiny cell with him you wouldn't have been able to read anything from his expression, save for a small, wry smile that seemed to be pointing at some inner joke. As he finished his reading he rolled up the parchment and returned it to its hiding place inside a flute, a flute the Earth King had been "kind" enough to allow him to take into his cell. He carefully placed the flute on the ground and then said, seemingly to himself.

"This has gone on for far too long, I was too…forgiving. They need to be dealt with."

The room around was silent, the four stone walls seeming to close in upon him. He raised his hand, as if to halt some unseen person.

"I would prefer it if we could still deal with this…quietly. We know the Fire Lord couldn't care less about his son, but the Dragon of the West could still be useful to him we could be in danger of losing our…privileges if we were to _harm _him."

A silent question was asked.

"Take the new "recruits", I am sure they will prove…valuable."

An air of tension hung in the room for a moment longer, but when Long Feng didn't not speak again it lifted. And now, for the first time since his capture, Long Feng was alone.

Iroh renewed the cold compress on his nephew's head with a resigned sigh. Zuko'd always had a hard time adjusting to new things, especially new viewpoints. In that way he was very much like his father, Fire Lord Ozai. For the millionth time Iroh cursed himself and his weakness, if only he had gone home and taken his rightful place as heir nothing of this all would have happened. Had he only been able to protect Lu-Ten and Ursa, Zuko wouldn't have experienced so much pain so early in his life.

He looked at Zuko, as he had done many times on their travels. And what he saw always filled him with a sense of extreme guilt; the youth had no worry lines or scars except of course the obvious one, but what filled Iroh with sadness and regret was the fact that his nephew had an almost permanent scowl on his face.

The boy had been through much and it was visible. But Iroh had never stopped believing in the good that Zuko was capable of. The Blue Spirit was proof of that. Although, he probably classified as biased since he loved his nephew as though he were his own son. He always had, even before Lu-Ten…But now was not the time to dwell upon such things.

As he placed his hand to the side of his nephew's face he felt a wave of relief wash over him. Zuko's fever was lowering. After renewing the compress he stood and made ready to open the Jasmine Dragon. Pausing at the door he felt compelled to turn around and say with a finality that surprised even him.

"It will not be long now Prince Zuko."

Shaking his head at his own foolishness he headed to the front of the store, ready for a new day of servitude.

Aang was having a very relaxing morning, composed of lazily staring out the window of his room at Katara's waterbending practice and thinking of ways to spark up non-awkward conversation with her.

_Hey, Katara! Remember when we kissed? Wasn't that great? Let's do it again but then not because it might show us the way out of a dark, dank and scary earthbender's cave, huh?_

Nah, that would probably be too forward.

_Katara wink wazzup! Hey, I wuz juzt thinkin' dat maybe you an' MC Avatar e.g. me coud go somewhere an' jus' chill you know jus' hang. An' maybe you know, you could show a brother some love, eh?_

He didn't even want to know where that came from. He plopped down on his bed with a heavy sigh, why did love have to be so hard? Before he could sink deeper into his melancholy the door to his room burst open and Sokka came running in.

"Aang, guess what?!!"

Aang looked at the smiling face of his friend and came to the obvious conclusion.

"You finally got to talk to Suki?"

Sokka's face fell for a moment. "No, but that's okay she's probably still tired from her trip to Ba-Sing-Se, I think. But enough about that, I found the best tea shop in town! It's called the Jasmine Dragon and they have all kinds of cool teas there, it's said to be the best in the world!"

"Would you stop shouting, I'm standing right here!"

"I can't stop! I'm just so excited, get yourself ready I'm going to tell the girls!"

When Sokka had left Aang could swear he still heard the loud "Tea!!" Sokka'd shouted as he left ringing in his ears. With a small sigh and a smile he resigned himself to staring at Katara for a while longer before getting ready to leave.

For the first time in his life Iroh felt uncomfortable though he could not exactly tell why. Still, he forced a smile on his face as a man dressed in the garish greens of the upper class entered the tea shop.

"Is there anything that I can help you with, honorable sir? Some jasmine tea perhaps, or would you prefer green or earth tea?" He looked at the man inquiringly.

"Iroh, brother of Ozai, you are to leave Ba-Sing-Se and never return. This is your first and only warning."

Iroh kept his face cheerful and servile with some effort. "You must be mistaken honorable customer; I am Mushi proprietor of the Jasmine Dr--."

The man cut Iroh off. "You would do well to heed my warning, Dragon of the West. The Dai Li do not like to be opposed." With a subtle gesture he showed Iroh his stone gloved hands.

Iroh was no fool, he knew who the Dai Li were and what they stood for. "Your master has been apprehended and from what I hear the Earth King is a kind man, you have no business threatening me."

"You will not listen? Then maybe we should make sure you have no reason to stay." Throughout their talk the Dai Li had never raised his voice, however something about the way he said this last part made the retired general stagger back as if it had been shouted mere inches from his face.

"What are you --?" A sudden crash from the back room made Iroh spin around in alarm. "Zuko!" Without thinking he ran towards the bamboo doors which separated the teahouse from the living area.

Just as he reached the door two Dai Li dropped down from the ceiling, as they hit the ground they immediately charged at him. Turning his run into a sweep he got them to back off as they tried to evade the flames, as they fell back Iroh took a fighting stance and chanced a quick look behind him.

A fourth Dai Li had appeared in the doorway, dressed in drab green robes and without the tell tale stone gloves and shoes instead he wore brown gloves and a mask that completely covered his face. Iroh glanced towards his other assailants, the two who had dropped down from the ceiling also wore the face covering masks and brown gloves, in fact, the only one who actually looked like Dai Li was the one who had entered his shop first. None of them had made a further attempt to attack him. Another crash was heard in the back of the tea shop. Iroh felt anger taking a hold of him.

"If you know what's good for you, you will let me pass and see my nephew!"

The one without a face mask answered him, though it had not been a question. "Your nephew is dead because you would not listen to my warning. You brought this on yourself. If you do not want to get hurt I suggest you leave Ba-Sing-Se."

Iroh felt his blood start to boil and as he desperately tried to get the image of a dead Zuko out of his mind, he saw but one thing clearly, he would not leave his nephew behind.

_Zuko walked down the road and was surprised to find that he was tired; even though he was sure he had not been walking for that long a time. With every step that he took he felt his feet getting heavier but something kept urging him on. 'Walk this path Zuko it is easier to walk than any other, let it drown you. Let it lead you and it will lead you to great things, let it lead you and you will not have to worry anymore.' _

_Zuko felt confused, why was the voice telling him to keep walking this path when it was clearly the only path he could take._

_Suddenly the voice came back sounding agitated and scared 'Whatever you hear or see, keep walking this path for it is the only right path to walk.' Why was it so weird to him that the voice sounded afraid? Why did it make him curious if there was another way to get to his destination? As he thought this a magnificent red dragon appeared overhead from the west. It floated gently into his field of vision and spoke in his Uncles voice 'Zuko, do not listen to the blue dragon, it seeks to placate you and keep you ignorant. The path you walk is the path you choose for the rest of your life, make sure it is your own decision to walk it.'_

_And just like that Zuko saw that he was not alone on this road the blue dragon walked next to him keeping pace and whispering things in his ear, it had made him blind to the other roads he could walk. He looked around and saw a road which was not at all like the one he was walking now; it looked to paved with pitfalls, twists and turns but he knew somewhere deep inside that road would be far more fulfilling to him._

_As soon as he set foot upon the loose cobbles of the other road he felt as if a weight was lifted from his shoulders. The red dragon floated just inches from his face 'I am proud of you Zuko, but now you need to wake up…the first pitfall will be a hard one."_

Zuko opened his eyes only to see a pillar of stone descending towards him at an alarming speed.

Well, that's the prologue…what did you people think? Oh and be advised that I will be taking some liberties with this story. Like how I just now didn't make the Gaang split up an' stuff? I would really like to hear what you guys think…and if I made grammatical errors I'm sorry but spelling checker only takes one so far...

Greets

Arck


	2. Protection is something freely given

A/N for everybody: And so ends chapter 2, I'm sorry for the long hiatus but I just started a new job so that's a bit of a hassle. But I promise to have the new chapters up sooner. And please as always R&R

**Protection is something freely given…**

Before he could even focus on the stone pillar descending towards him at an alarming speed Zuko already felt his body start reacting. He rolled aside and watched, fascinated, as the pillar shattered the cot he had lain on not a second earlier. He glanced around the room to try and spot his unseen attacker, he could not see anybody and relaxed but then some instinct forced him to jump up. Mid-jump he could finally see his enemy as another stone pillar streamed past beneath him, tracing the pillar back to the far corner of the room near an open window.

'_How could I not have seen that?'_ He scolded himself as he landed on his hands and effortlessly completed his back-flip, returning to land on his feet he swept his arm forward with practiced ease, fully intent on frying his opponent with the fire sprouting from his arm. Or rather, which _should_ be sprouting from his arm. He looked down at it in surprise to see that there was no flame to see. He could only just step aside as a stone block sailed past his shoulder and went through the window with a loud crash.

An attempt at a fire kick followed by a sweep proved just as fruitless as his earlier attempt and actually prompted his enemy to speak up.

"What are you doing." The man, or woman Zuko could not tell, asked or said rather as there had not been enough fluctuation in the voice to see it as a question.

"That's something I should be asking you! How dare you attack me in my own home, while I'm clearly unable to defend myself?" Zuko felt the heat of righteous anger rise within him, but he was also feeling a great emptiness where before there had been fire, and this worried him more than he was willing to show.

"We know all about you and the Dragon of the West exile, and while we are reluctant to remove him we have no such qualms about you." As the Dai Li spoke these words he, or she, sent more stone blocks in Zuko's direction which he again easily evaded.

'_Uncle,' _Zuko thought worriedly, _'what have they done to you?' _

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Iroh was barely holding his own against the Dai Li; this was because he was being distracted by the sounds which came from his nephew's room. He was constantly trying to make his way towards it but this plan would ultimately fail, because one of the Dai Li would jump into his field of vision and start attacking him. All but one, the masked Dai Li who had entered last, this one stood on the sidelines unmoving and seemingly uncaring, as Iroh fought his companions.

Once again Iroh made a break for the bamboo door of Zuko's room and once again one of the masked Dai Li jumped in front of him. But this time, Iroh had counted on it. He grabbed the Dai Li's arm and delivered a crippling fire punch to its abdomen; to the Dai Li's credit he barely made a sound as he slumped to the ground. Iroh knew the second masked one would be behind him even before he felt the air rush past his face. This one seemed to be fond off using arrows, something Iroh could us to his advantage. He felt something almost akin to pity as the quiver on the Dai Li's back went up in flames but he still dealt the finishing blow while the Dai Li was distracted.

Feeling proud of himself, as he had only taken four seconds to take out two Dai Li, Iroh turned to the two Dai Li who where still standing between him and his nephew.

Before he could even threaten them the Earthbender had already thrown his gloves towards him. Iroh made a wall of blue flame which disintegrated the stone, after which he simply threw his fine china teapot at the Earthbender's head. He smiled when the Dai Li's body hit the ground with a loud thud, '_Crude but effective_'. He turned towards the bamboo door again but was again thwarted as the quiet one stepped in front of him.

"Why are you doing this?!" He exclaimed, not expecting to get an answer.

"Because you are in the way." With these two hooks on chains fell out of the Dai Li's and with a fell swoop they where embedded in Iroh's chest. The look on Iroh's face would have been comical if his green robe didn't start to color red with his blood.

Iroh fell to his knees just as the bamboo door opened and Zuko stepped out into the main hall of the Jasmine Dragon.

He could only manage a weak "Run Zuko!" as he fell to the ground mortally wounded.

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An unearthly howl stopped Aang in his tracks.

"Where did that come from?" Katara asked.

"I think it came from over there." Aang said as he pointed north.

"Well don't just stand there Twinkle Toes, someone needs our help." Toph said as she already started to make her way towards the direction of the sound.

"But that's…The Jasmine Dragon!"

"We know you want tea Sokka but don't you think we should try and see if those people need our help first?" Aang said, exasperated, while they all started making their way north.

"No, I mean yes, but the scream is coming from the Jasmine Dragon. Look there it is!" And when Sokka opened the door, the world went white.

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**A/N for those who have _seen_ the guru and crossroads spoilers ahead**: rant on/ I couldn't believe what happened! I found it very out off character for Zuko to go against his Uncle, but I still think it is a ruse you know why? Because when Iroh entered the cave where Katara and Zuko where being held he and Zuko where all hugs and smiles. I refuse to believe Zuko could turn on his Uncle after all this. I can't wait for the next season can you/rant off

Arck


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